What are you playing?

PUBG offers a lot of fun moments for both experienced and mediocre gamers (such as myself). I definitely fall into the same category you do. I have 2 kids, full time job, etc. I maybe get to play 1 or 2 matches a day if I'm lucky. Most nights I have to choose between watching a show on TV or an hour or 2 gaming.

PUBG has enough luck aspect to it, that as long as you're serviceable with a first or third person shooter, you can get some wins. And winning is rare in these battle royale games, especially solo mode, but there are lots of fun moments in between. I did get 1 solo victory (I've only played about 30 matches total). Definitely got lucky finding right equipment, right place right time, etc. but it was still one of the most rewarding video game experiences I've had in a long time. Right up there with beating the original Double Dragon without losing a life.

You're right though, getting sniped is no fun. But that's part of the fun for me, is the fear you feel when you're 20 minutes into a game not paying attention to your surroundings searching for some nice loot and next thing you know you're dead.

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That's what I love about Fortnite as well. Some matches I'll find good weapons early and then just sprint towards the middle of the map and hide facing outwards....waiting for those not paying attention to blindly run right into my sights. Other times I go to the popular areas and run for my life with shooters all around me- I know I'll die fast but if you take a few out beforehand, then you still get satisfaction. So I completely agree with you- winning doesn't have to be coming in first place.

Started playing Origins again after a long hiatus. It's like doing chores, but I intend on finishing it. I love stealth games, it's just hacking away at alligators and hippos that gets annoying.

I also picked up Celeste on Switch. Pretty fun. Snappy. Gets difficult very quickly, but got better as I was playing it.

I'm going to need a new game pretty soon, something linear. I think I'll get the new Wolfenstein on the cheap.

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I'm all sports games this summer, with The Show right now, and then Madden when it comes out next month. My birthday is at the end of September, and I think I'll ask my wife to get me the new Dragon Quest game then, and roll with that through the Autumn.

I'm all sports games this summer, with The Show right now, and then Madden when it comes out next month. My birthday is at the end of September, and I think I'll ask my wife to get me the new Dragon Quest game then, and roll with that through the Autumn.

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I heard the Builders off-shoot is fun, but I can't ever entirely convince myself that I'd enjoy it.

I keep waiting for Uncharted: Lost Legacy to drop in price. But I've never seen it drop below 30 bucks. Just can't stomach paying that much for what is essentially DLC. It'll eventually go to $19.99, I just have to wait them out!

I keep waiting for Uncharted: Lost Legacy to drop in price. But I've never seen it drop below 30 bucks. Just can't stomach paying that much for what is essentially DLC. It'll eventually go to $19.99, I just have to wait them out!

Pathfinder Adventures! It's the digital implementation of the Rise of the Runelords campaign from the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It's a lot of fun; part puzzle, part deck builder, part RPG. You can sync up the game between your phone and Steam as well.

The biggest update yet to No Man's Sky releases on July 24th. Also the date of the release of the Xbox version. Too many changes and additions to list, but there is a trailer that shows some of the changes -the most obvious being the option of playing from a third-person point of view.

The biggest update yet to No Man's Sky releases on July 24th. Also the date of the release of the Xbox version. Too many changes and additions to list, but there is a trailer that shows some of the changes -the most obvious being the option of playing from a third-person point of view.

On one hand, it's nice that they're fixing and updating games years after launch. on the other hand, it emboldens publishers to release ****ty quality games because they can fix it later.

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I'd argue that that is nearly the standard for many games now. Release on time, no matter the quality, and patch it up later. Which means what for us gamers? Hold off on that DAY ONE purchase. Wait on the reviews and forum feedback to decide if you need to wait for a patch or two.

I liked NMS from day one, but I wasn't all that interested in multiplayer nor did I want much more than to be able to fly around and explore random planets. Each update added depth to the game though, and I've enjoyed going back to play each time.

After spending some time with the NEXT update, I'd say we are really playing NMS 2.0 just two years after the game released. Props to Hello Games for staying with it and finally delivering the game that was promised AND FOR NO EXTRA COST. Every update has been free.

Plenty of developers have created bad games and then disappeared. Props to Hello Games for sticking it out.

It's the standard for Western AAA games, yes. But I didn't encounter this "feels like early access at retail release" issue in NieR: Automata, or Breath of the Wild, or Final Fantasy XV (PS4 and PC), or Super Mario Odyssey, or Dragon Quest Heroes II, or Secret of Mana, or Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, or Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology... etc, etc.

Let's be quite clear. It's the top three or four Western publishers doing this ****, with Sony and Microsoft allowing and enabling them. The average gamer supports it, because Call of Annual Shareholder Meeting and Battlethefans and Maddening and BanalAffront are still making money despite obvious failure to iterate quality and value.

When BanalAffront triggered a lootbox crisis, my forehead met my desk. The problem wasn't lootboxes, the problem was the mentality that the money you pay to buy a game at retail is a price of entry, not a total cost of ownership.

Gears of War 4. I never got into the MP of the series, but always enjoyed the campaigns. I like this one, but I do not like how they threw in horde missions into the campaign. It throws off the pacing and there's already a horde mode.

'Games As A Service' is a danger to the idea that you can 'buy and own' a game.

There are the rumors that Google is looking to enter the videogame market with a streaming box, and that a streaming machine will be an optional console for the next Xbox also. Unless we all suddenly get fiber broadband? I don't see how they can make it work for the real twitchy games (fighters and others that demand split-second reactions) AND as far as graphics go -they will be shooting for 720p? Maybe 1080p? Plus if your internet goes down? Or you miss a payment on your streaming service? No games for you!

If I thought they'd actually LOWER the prices of games when they go full digital and cut out the middleman (Gamestop/Walmart/Amazon) that could be a positive, but does anyone think they won't just charge full price and pocket the extra money?

I picked up Maximum Football 2018 yesterday. Digital download, priced at $17. I was expecting something pretty basic (like the old football games on the original Playstation or maybe Dreamcast level).

It is a 'work in progress' type of game, and made me appreciate how much goes into making a well playing football game with good presentation. It does have rules for Canadian/College/Pro football so you can switch between those game modes.

There is an update coming that will add a Logo Editor to the game, but you can modify the uniforms and some player details right now. Not an NFL licensed game of course (not even a CFL license) and you actually have a 16 team American Pro football league, with a Season mode, playoffs and Championship game.

The developer seems responsive to feedback, which is nice. Given a couple more years, and several more features added, this could become a real option for videogame football. There is another indie football game out early September called Axis Football 2018 which I also plan to purchase. These games have been PC only and finally have Xbox One and PS4 versions this year (I game on a regular PS4).

If you are perfectly happy with Madden, then you don't need these games -but even if you want something different to play you are getting games that are closer to 'early access' than a polished product.

I'm interested in how those other football games do, but won't be buying them. Maybe someday, someone will make one that has a robust enough system that people can engineer a college football replacement out of it. For now, after taking last year off, I'm getting Madden when it comes out next week.

'Games As A Service' is a danger to the idea that you can 'buy and own' a game.

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Not really. FF15 is a GaaS, and no one disputes ownership of that. The issue is when the game is offered on a subscription model, similar to an MMO, that the "you're just renting it for a month until you renew" idea comes into play.

Not really. FF15 is a GaaS, and no one disputes ownership of that. The issue is when the game is offered on a subscription model, similar to an MMO, that the "you're just renting it for a month until you renew" idea comes into play.

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It also involves Microtransactions. If a game essentially lets you pay-to-win by upgrading things like weapons and armor? I may own the copy of the game, but my experience is going to be negatively impacted by that push to squeeze every possible dollar AFTER the initial purchase. This is a subject for a separate thread though, so to get back on track here....

There is a wave of gaming goodness between now and the the end of the year for me. Shenmue I & II Remastered, Spider-Man, Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey (the Ancient Greek setting makes this the first AC game I will buy at full price instead of waiting a year or so), Life is Strange 2, Axis Football 2018, and a handful of other games I'm hoping to get on sale during the holiday sales.

Currently playing the new WoW expansion Battle for Azeroth. Pretty solid, it's WoW. You either like it or don't.

Anyone do No Man's Sky on the XBone? Been considering it, but dang it's annoying that it's like $40-50 on that platform and like half that on the others. Will probably wait till the holidays and see if there is a sale.

Well, my time was partly wasted in madden. Turns out, you can adjust the player contracts all you like, but the CPU will pay no attention to years that you add onto deals, and resign those players to their own (generally smaller) deals anyways. They also apparently aren't effected if you put them over the cap. Bogus.